Chapter 0: Prologue
21XX: Time Unknown
...
It was absolutely storming.
The sky was dark, overcast with gloomy gray clouds. The wind howled. The rain poured heavily onto the ground. The sound of thunder filled the air. It was the type of weather where families stayed inside their households, huddled with their family members as they exchanged stories about their days. They would be sipping their hot chocolate, glancing affectionately at their Pokemon while they either sat and listened to their trainers' stories or played with each other, lost in their own worlds. Family members wouldn't go outside when they could stay inside the cozy confides of their households. They already had everything they already needed.
However, that was another time. That was the past. And now was the present.
A little boy ran down ravaged streets, his soggy and already dirtied sneakers pounding onto the cracked cement. He was holding a bag of stashed food, keeping it close to his chest, trying to keep it as dry as possible. His long brown bangs were plastered to his forehead, wet from the constant downpour, and he shivered as the wind picked up. His Emolga flew beside him, or at least attempted to. With the strong winds, it was rather hard to glide easily alongside the boy.
A broken down house came into view, and the little boy breathed out a sigh of relief. Next to him, his Emolga let out a squeak of joy and glided ahead of him, or at least attempted to. The wind pushed the little Pokemon back, nearly hitting the brunette boy in the face had he not dodged. While clutching to his bag of foods in one hand, he reached out to the Emolga and held her close to his chest. With the Pokemon and his food in his arms, the boy picked up his pace, wanting to get back to his home as soon as possible, desperate to escape the ongoing storm.
As he got to the front door of his home, the boy reached out for the door knob, before stopping suddenly. He glanced around nervously, blue eyes scanning his surroundings carefully despite wanting to finally go inside and dry off. He took a few steps back, trying to get a closer look around the area before nodding to himself. Deeming it safe, he went back to the front porch and opened the door, before shutting behind him softly, locking it as he did so. He moved the chair next to the door under the knob for extra security.
The house was a lot warmer than he expected and he sighed out yet another breath of relief, another days work finally behind him. He let his Emolga jump out of his arms, as she chirped again and shook her fur dry. He took a mental note to set aside a towel at the front door for the Pokemon and himself as he wrung out the water from his clothes that were clinging to his skin, having set aside the food on the ground nearby.
Once completely dried off, he made his way through the broken down home, taking out an apple from the bag as he carried it down the hall. The ceiling seemed ready to give away itself, but for some reason, still managed to keep itself up. The boy was just thankful it was still going strong.
"Mom? Mom, I'm home," he called. He entered the room to his left and sat next to his mom's bedside. "I've got you some food. Finally managed to get to an abandoned grocery store that still had some good stuff left." The 9 year old boy gave her the apple he was holding while taking out a banana for his own. His mom's Duosion floated into the room, greeting the boy with a nod as it settled down next to the Emolga.
His mother smiled weakly, gratefully taking the apple from her son, her own brown hair a tangled mess on the pillows. "T-thank you sweetheart. Y'know… you didn't have to do this right?" She suddenly coughed violently, curling up her body as she did so. Her Duosion floated up near her bedside, obviously concerned for her.
He shook his head desperately, his hand on her back as he gave her the nearly empty water bottle at her bedside. "Would you stop saying that? I promised Dad that I would take care of you while he was gone, and I intend to keep that promise," he said, a lot more mature than any other normal 9 year old boy. Granted, he had to be. He was the man of the household now. Even though it was just him and his mom left. And the Pokemon.
He knew his mom felt guilty on having her son do everything while in her weakened state. There were countless times when she told him to leave her. To take care of himself. To save himself and not have to worry anyone besides himself. He knew she thought she was going to die sooner or later, and language aside, he would be damned before letting anything happen to her.
"But only if you would-"
There was a slam. Something clattered onto the ground. There were muffled voices. Two male. One female. "Finally, we got that god-damned door open," the boy heard someone say.
The boy and his mother froze. Someone- no. People had broken into their tiny shack of a home. The boy's eyes widened as he panicked to himself. He had checked his surroundings before getting into the house! The house already looked abandoned from the outside, had these strangers saw him come into the house? Did they know people were living in here? His mother's Duosion got up and floated out of the room with a small cry, ready to take on the trespassers to protect his trainer and her son.
The mother reached out and grabbed his wrist gently before tugging him by her side. She gave him a close hug while whispering a quick, "I love you," to him, while telling him to hide under the bed with his Emolga. Her son was frozen, too busy panicking to himself to reciprocate the hug. The woman then got up, mustering up any strength she had left to protect them herself, and shoved her son and Emolga under the bed. The boy was too frozen to fight back and defy his mother's order. Instead, in his own cowardice, he curled up to himself under her bed, hugging his Emolga close to him, and shut his eyes tightly, trying to block out what was happening.
There was a cry. And then some laughter. Not the giggly fun-loving kind of laughter, but a darker, more sinister one. "Ha!" he heard a man shout. "That little thing actually thought it could do a number on us!"
"Shut up would you?" a woman said. "There isn't just a Duosin here. Remember your job. We still got things to take care of."
The footsteps were closer than ever, and before he knew it, the intruders had set foot into the room. "Oh? Now who do we have here?"
There was a pause. The boy shivered to himself, ashamed of his cowardly actions and shut his eyes even tighter, small tears attempting to escape his eyelids. He had promised to protect his mother, and what was he doing now? He heard his mother's voice, the coldest he had ever heard it. "Just a woman. Trying to survive."
A longer pause. A few more steps. And then a man's voice. "Are you.. the only one here?"
"Yes."
The longest silence the boy had ever experienced in his 9 years of living then commenced. And then it ended. "Liar."
A snap of someone's fingers.
Then there was a growl. A ferocious one. A resounding crunch. A horrible, horrible sound. The boy decided to open his eyes, just a little tiny bit, and was met with a horrifying sight.
Blood. All over the ground. His mother's body, now dead body lying on top of her own pool of blood. Brown eyes still wide open in surprise, her mouth slightly agape. Never again would he hear her soft voice. Her quiet laughter. Her gentle smile.
Never. Ever. Again.
He couldn't look away. He had to cover his mouth or else he would have screamed. His Emolga curled itself closer in his arms, just as frightened as he was.
A pair of feet walked around his mother's corpse. Slowly. Mockingly. "Y'know, my Mightyena has an… extremely strong sense of smell. With some extremely sharp teeth. You can't just trick a Pokemon like this any day. And besides, we already knew you weren't the only one here." A foot nudged his mom's dead body to the side. The Mightyena started to growl softly.
"But don't worry. We're only here to pay a visit. We'll be out shortly. We just need to get some supplies that would really really help us out."
The Mightyena's growls got even louder. "… Isn't that right?"
The boy didn't even have any time to scream before he was finished off.
There is war.
What was once a peaceful era, where human and Pokemon coexisted together in harmony, is now gone.
What was once a bustling and industrializing world was now replaced by a ravaged and destroyed one. Where there were billions of people, there was now less than fifty thousand. Where there were billions upon billions of Pokemon, there were fewer Pokemon than anyone could ever imagine.
There is no law and order. The world is in chaos.
It's every man for themselves.
Will you make alliances? Will you fend everyone off yourself? Will you trust the gradually growing government trying to establish order again? Or are these just independent organizations working for their own gain?
One thing is clear. You can't trust anybody. Everyone is struggling to survive.
So how will you?
So why hello there! This is my first SYOC thing here in general. I honestly wrote this up in a spur of the moment kind of thing.
I'm not generally an active writer, nor am I a great writer myself. So if you have any criticisms, feel free to do so. If anything, my writing is all over the place, and my ideas aren't exactly the best.
But ehhh, it'll have to do here I guess.
My updates for this fic will be rather spontaneous. I'm not sure if I'll update as often as many other fanfic writers since I am such a procrastinator. Plus, high schools been getting to me lately, and I can't afford myself to slack off. Unless I've been hit with a giant plot bunny and I'm really inspired, then chances are, I'm gonna be writing a lot.
But as for now? I'm not sure. But, I'll do my best!
So feel free to submit an OC. I'll be looking forward to seeing them! The OC form will be on my profile, so check it out!
Bye for now!
PLEASE READ THE RULES. I will be accepting 3 Males and 2 Females. Maybe I'll accept more depending on how good the OC is and how I can easily incorporate them in the story, but as for now, I think I can only handle 5 characters.
Rules:
1. Label it SYOC: (Character Name) would you please?
2. Follow the Guidelines in parenthesis. Delete everything in the said parenthesis before submitting the form. It just makes it easier to read.
3. I have the right to reject your Oc. So if I don't like your OC, you cannot get mad about it.
4. Follow and leave a review! Honestly, I just wanna know whether or not you've read it or not. And what's the point of submitting an OC when you don't follow the story?
5. Submit your OC in Pm only. Don't do it on reviews. If you do, I'm just going to ignore it completely.
6. For reassurance's sake, no worries, I'm gonna read through every single one and reply to every single one eventually. So if you're worried that I'll ignore yours don't worry. I'll read through it eventually and tell you whether or not your OC is accepted
7. At the TOP of your application write "I have read the rules and accepted the rules of this SYOC." I'm gonna need proof to know you've read it after all.
Character: (As of now, only one more male will be accepted, depending on how good he is and how easy it will be to incorporate him in the plot I have in mind right now. So do your very best!)
Name: (first and last name. You can put a middle name if you'd like. And please, don't use those Japanese-like names unless you have a reason. Like if your character is Asian)
Nickname: (optional)
Gender:
Age: (Can be any age. From between 13-21 I guess. You can go a little younger or older if you want though, but there has to be a reason)
Appearance: (Don't give me a short descriptive. Is your character tall? Short? Lean? Color of their hair? Skin tone? Eye color? Give me descriptive colors as well like auburn brown or emerald green or something. And please, just go with the generic hair colors and eye colors. I don't want sky blue hair with red eyes. Sorry.)
Main outfit: (Remember. This is an apocalyptic setting. So that doesn't mean your character can go around looking perfect everywhere he/she goes. Be realistic please!)
Personality: (Once again. Be descriptive. At least 6 lines of text. If you say "Pretty. Smart. Athletic. Nice. Friendly." I'm rejecting that application right away. Be creative! A great personality gives me lots to work with and chances of being accepted even bigger)
History: (Once again, be creative. 6 lines at least. Give me something to work with. Make a really good history, and your chances of being accepted and as being a main character are even bigger. What was their life before the apocalypse? Take note that it started 8 years ago or so.)
Hometown: (I'd say this takes place in the Hoenn region, since I'm mostly familiar with that region. But every Pokemon is fair game!)
Weapon: (Optional. If you're gonna say any weapon, tell me how they got their weapon. Are they learning to use it? Are they already an experienced user? Granted, your character might appear in the story not having their weapon /at all/, but chances are, they might get a weapon eventually. Maybe. I'm a little unsure if this category is even needed cuz they have Pokemon xD)
Romance: (yes/no)
Sexual Orientation: (Bi? Homosexual? Heterosexual? Asexual? Pansexual?)
Type of Person that attracts them: (what are they looking for in a partner?)
Death: (Yes/No? Do you want your character to die?)
Quotes: (things your character would say)
Skills + Hobbies: (give me a variety of these)
Likes/Dislikes: (same as above)
Fears:
Battle Style: (Three sentences minimum here)
Pokemon: (Two max here. You can include a third that might come to play later, but that can't be guaranteed. Pokeballs are a rarity here in this verse so yea. Also, please let's give the underrated Pokemon a shot. Don't make every Pokemon you have a legendary or a pseudo or an overrated Pokemon. Only one starter max. )
Species:
Nickname: (optional)
Gender:
Ability:
Moves: (4-7 moves if you would!)
Personality: (Doesn't have to be as greatly described, but give me something to work with as well)
History: (how did they meet your character? What's their relationship?
Evolve?: